The present inventive concepts relate to semiconductor devices and, more particularly, to semiconductor devices which are capable of mitigating or preventing damage of an insulating layer attributed to accumulation of charges and/or methods of forming the same.
In recent years, the use of mobile devices such as smart phones, tablets PCs, digital cameras, MP3 players, and personal digital assistants (PDAs) is tremendously growing. Various types of semiconductor devices have been mounted on such mobile devices. Under the mobile environment, there are increasing demands for higher capacity and lower power consumption. In order to meet the demands, the integration of the above-mentioned semiconductor devices continues to increase.
A transistor is the most basic element in semiconductor fabrication processes. In the semiconductor fabrication processes, a plasma process is used as an etching process. As the plasma process is carried out, a large number of charges may be accumulated at a gate electrode of a transistor. The accumulated charges may cause an insulating layer of the transistor to be damaged. A protection circuit may be configured to discharge the accumulated charges. However, a relatively large chip area and an additional process are required to configure the protection circuit.